Kerry, Dole shot down in Senate on disabilities treaty

Rejection of UN agreement led by GOP

Image provided by CSPAN2 shows a frail former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, right, wheeled into the Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday by his wife Elizabeth Dole to urge passage of a disabilities treaty. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

With a majority of Republican senators voting in opposition, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John F. Kerry Tuesday fell five votes short of achieving ratification of a treaty designed to ensure that those living with disabilities enjoy equal rights worldwide.

With 66 votes needed for ratification, the U.N. Treaty on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities failed on a 61-38 vote. All 53 Democrats voted in favor of the treaty and were joined by eight Republicans, including all four New England GOP senators: Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine.

Also voting in favor of the treaty was Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who suffered disabling injuries while a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War.

But 38 Republican senators — many of whom had earlier signed a letter objecting to consideration of such treaties during Congress’ lame duck session — voted to block ratification.

In a statement following the vote, Mr. Kerry, D-Mass., charged that the defeat was the result of a “dysfunction (that) hurt veterans and the disabled,” and the opponents had ignored the facts underlying the treaty and its bipartisan support.

“This is one of the saddest days I’ve seen in almost 28 years in the Senate and it needs to be a wakeup call about a broken institution that’s letting down the American people,” Kerry said in a statement. “We need to fix this place because what happens and doesn’t happen here affects millions of lives.”

Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., now 89 and recently discharged from the hospital, appeared on the Senate floor in a wheelchair in an effort to bolster support for the treaty. He has suffered from the limited use of his right arm since he was severely injured as a soldier in World War II. U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., the first quadriplegic elected to the House, was also present for the Senate vote.

Responding to the objections to considering the treaty, Mr. Kerry noted that, since 1970, 19 treaties have been ratified during lame duck sessions.

“There is nothing special or different about a lame duck. It’s a session of the U.S. Congress,” Mr. Kerry said on the floor. “And just as we are going to consider important fiscal matters, we should consider other important matters.”

But the treaty also came under attack from some conservatives who said it could override U.S. law and undermine this country’s sovereignty. Among the leading opponents was former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., a contender for this year’s presidential nomination and the father of a disabled daughter. He joined conservative legislators in arguing that the treaty would allow parents to be separated from their disabled children, as well as affect issues relating to homeschooling and abortion.

At a press conference a day prior to the vote, Mr. Kerry and other advocates dismissed myths about the treaty including the contentions that it would impact U.S. law or sovereignty.

“All it does is create a committee on the rights of persons with disabilities and all it can do is review reports and make a suggestion,” he added Tuesday on the Senate floor. “The Foreign Relations Committee even included language in the resolution of advice and consent to make it crystal clear.”

Referring to the opponents, Mr. Kerry added: “All of their arguments have been contradicted by the facts and the law. How is it possible that such a treaty could threaten anybody in our country? The answer is simple, it doesn’t, and it can’t.”

The treaty was negotiated by the George W. Bush administration. It was completed in 2006. The treaty was adopted in 2006 by the United Nations and signed by President Obama in 2009. A Kerry spokesman said 153 nations and the European Union have signed on to the treaty, and 126 of those have ratified it.

Steven Rothstein, president of the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Mass., said in a telephone interview that the opposition to the treaty is “embarrassing” for the United States, since many of the nations that have ratified it do not have as “strong” a disabilities law as this country.